Blockchain design and implementation for the protection of digital artifacts in Turkey

In the globalizing world, people produce many different ideas by using their imaginations. Sometimes these ideas are expressed by words, actions, writings, pictures or other means. These values, which are seen as a mental activity, are the product of great efforts. However, it is very difficult to determine whose product these ideas are. In addition to who owns that intellectual effort, it is also important to know who first produced it. Questions such as, among similar ideas which person first came up with that idea may come to the fore. In order to solve this problem a timestamp provided by the blockchain is proposed in this thesis study. In the proposed work, time-stamped keeping of sample data added to the blockchain has been realized. While these files were added to the blockchain, they were recorded with the names of the authors and also verification commands were run. With direct access, the owner of the work and when it was produced can be found. The purpose of this study is to protect the information about who owns the digital works produced with intellectual labor and when they were produced, by using the blockchain with unchangeable and time-stamped manner. Thus, individuals will be able to protect their intellectual and economic rights by proving their intellectual efforts. In this study, a smart contract was created on the blockchain. Tokens in JSON Web Token (JWT) structure were used without using signing certificates and additional tokens were created. The created JWT structure was encrypted by using ECDSA encryption algorithm and a proof file was produced. By removing the certificate servers, additional processing loads were also removed. The proof file created with decentralized applications (DApp) is verified over the blockchain, ensuring the integrity, accuracy and immutability of the digital artifact. This evidence file may also help the forensic process.